The present invention relates to the grounding of electronic systems. System power supply configurations locate a power supply in a system cabinet. Line power from the outside is connected to the power supply that transforms the line voltage into usable regulated voltage levels. Regulated power is then distributed to various electronic modules within the cabinet. The system cabinet has card cages housing a plurality of electronic card modules.
The power is linearly routed from the input line voltage source to the power supply and then to the card cages. This routing creates a single ground path. The grounding path from the power supply to the card cage provides a single path through which ground currents return to a line power ground.
Grounding currents are restricted to this single path. The noise generated on the single path is in part caused by the current multiplied by the resistance of the path. The disadvantage of the single path is that any resistance on the single path has a direct effect on the amount of noise generated.